sources of income he had made a lot of money of his own as a highly successful architect. In London there were several edifices in the strictly modern idiom that reared their heads as a fairly lasting memorial to him, and he had created at least one cathedral and any number of blocks of flats, offices and shopping districts.
As Charles Leydon he was well known, and he was also known to have advanced ideas ... But to talk of England’s green and pleasant land disappearing beneath a sea of bricks and mortar and concrete because the people wished for it was a statement that Alison at least found it difficult to accept when the man who made it had just inherited a very large slice of one of the most delectable corners of England. Having spent the last five years of her life amongst Yorkshire farmers she did not think they would be happy to see their land go for other purposes because the shape of the world was changing.
Whatever Charles Leydon might know about the subject, in that part of Yorkshire it was changing very slowly.
Striving to prevent her teeth from chattering while she hugged herself with her slim arms against the cold, she heard herself say in a tone of some surprise:
“But I don’t think Leydon Hall will alter very much in the next few years. People love coming here to see it too much to wish to see it changed.”
Her new landlord regarded her with open contempt.
“My dear Mrs. Fairlie,” he said, contempt quivering in his voice, “don’t you know that ‘people,’ in the mass, have little idea of what is good for them? If I decided to pull this place down and replace it with a township it would be more to their advantage than coming here to gape at an archaic survival that at the moment is doing literally no good to anyone.”
She gaped at him.
“But you’d have to have permission to do that. Planning permission!”
“I know. I have no intention of asking for it.”
“Then why ...?”
He glanced at the forest of chimney-pots. “It’s an idea,” he remarked, helping himself to a cigarette. “Just an idea.”
She bit her lip.
“Last summer,” she told him, “several hundred people came here and really enjoyed themselves, wandering in the grounds. Many of them came from towns where they can only read about places like this. The money that we took in entrance fees went to a very worthwhile charity in which the late Sir Francis was particularly interested. We don’t have a large staff here at Leydon now, but we do have gardeners and under-gardeners, who would lose their jobs if you decided to pull Leydon down.”
She thought that his eyes mocked her.
“And I don’t suppose you’d like it very much, either, would you, Mrs. Fairlie?” he said, as if he was reasonably certain she was thinking of herself when she mentioned gardeners and under-gardeners. “You’ve probably found it very pleasant living and working here, and it might not be entirely simple running something similar to earth if a situation arose that rendered you temporarily jobless and homeless. For I’ve no doubt you’d find something to suit your taste in time.”
Alison, who had been dreading this day for weeks, and had been very much afraid that once it had come and gone her threadbare security would have been seriously threatened, felt as if the whole inside of her mouth and throat dried up. She felt as if already the worst had happened to her... and for one moment she was inclined to panic.
Then she told herself, sternly, not to be ridiculous, because these things happened. They had happened to her before, and the world had steadied. The shock had evaporated, things had worked out, a miracle had occurred ... and she and the girls had survived. Poor Roger had died, but even he had lived long enough to know that his family had found some sort of a niche. It had been a tremendous relief to him.
But now, apparently, they were once again in danger of losing that niche ... depending upon the whim of a man who